Chinese Christianity or Chinese Christianities? A Hearing-Impaired Protestant Congregation in Urban China

This paper analyses a hearing-impaired Protestant community in urban China and seeks to problematise concepts such as Chinese Christianity or Chinese Christianities by revealing the extent to which this particular community has its own contextualised Protestant message. Based on ethnographic data generated over a twelve month period in a group of churches in urban Huadong, I will argue that while the message of this particular group is highly contextualised, the community has extensive national and transnational ties, linking it to a range of Protestant groups both within and outside mainland China. These ties and the way in which they help to shape this particular congregation demonstrate that it is problematic to attempt to separate Protestant groups from the global Protestant context. This study, therefore, furthers our understanding of the nature of the Protestant community in one localised urban locale.